Happy 50th, Star Trek!

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Thanks, Gene

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Ship’s doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy

While Spock was all cold logic and Kirk was fiery passion, Bones was the heart of the Enterprise crew. He was the one who made the plea to do the right thing, who reminded the others of the potential cost of obeying logic or the Prime Directive. McCoy also was the true audience surrogate of the show, saying the things we yelled at the TV. The crew of the Enterprise did run into some completely ridiculous phenomena, and none of it would have worked if McCoy wasn’t there to say “Of course you save their lives, you idiots!” and “How in the universe is this happening to us?”

McCoy’s history isn’t epic and tragic like Kirk’s or unique like Spock’s. Which is why he, despite being an actual genius, insisted over and over that he was just a country doctor.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/leonard-bones...rek-1786345097

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Star Trek: The Original Series boldly began going 48 years ago today: September 8, 1966. It took a couple of years, lots of blood, sweat and tears, not to mention two pilots, but Star Trek finally debuted with the episode “The Man Trap,” also known as the one with the vampire monster.

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More than just science fiction, it dared to imagine a future for humanity where it had moved past war, inequality, and poverty, replacing them with tolerance, exploration, and hope. And it’s not an exaggeration to say that Star Trek changed the world.

Star Trek has had many incarnations over the years—there have been six television shows, 726 total episodes, 13 movies, and one reboot—but its primary mission has stayed the same. The result is a series that won countless awards (31 Emmys!) but has also fostered a massive fandom that includes actors, politicians, and more. It’s a show that created and made famous many of the tropes that science fiction uses all the time now. It’s a series so influential that an actual spacecraft was named after the fictional starship Enterprise. Scientists have spent years working to turn the fake technology seen in the series into a reality.

It seems impossible now, but back in 1966, the original Star Trek was not an easy sell—it had two pilots and a major cast change before going on the air—and it was canceled after three seasons, due to low ratings. But thanks to syndication, a loyal fandom arose, one that has only grown over the last five decades. Now it’s an institution. And it’s an institution that will continue, as the series finally returns to TV next year with Bryan Fuller’s highly anticipated Star Trek: Discovery.



Katharine Trendacosta

http://io9.gizmodo.com/happy-50th-an...rek-1786384803

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Far-fetched gizmos of 'Star Trek' are today's tech toys


James Doohan as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery uses a Communicator

The communicator, a precursor to the smartphone. It took just four years after the original series ended before Martin Cooper of Motorola made the first mobile phone call on April 3, 1973, though the first commercial cellphone wasn’t available until 1984 and sold for nearly $4,000.

• The universal translator seen on Star Trek is comparable to today's smartphone translator apps.
• The wedge-shaped clipboard used by Star Trek's Yeomen in the '60s series was a precursor to today's computer tablets.
• The multi-colored “microtape” data cartridge became reality in the form of 3.5-inch computer diskettes, which later begat flash drives.
• The Enterprise’s main computer, with the female voice of Majel Barrett, interacted with the crew the same way Alexa, the cloud-based voice recognition agent of Amazon's Echo, does. And of course, there is Siri for iPhone users.
• Video-conferencing technology was commonly seen in Star Trek, using the ship's main view screen. Now Skype and Apple's FaceTime allow anyone to use the technology on the go to chat with friends.
• Star Trek's ship’s scanners and transporter device tracked the precise location of anyone on a planet, just like today's GPS capabilities.
• Dr. McCoy's hypospray is similar to MIT's Jet Injector, which delivers medicine or vaccines painlessly through the skin without needles. It works somewhat like a laser, with a very thin jet of medicine.
• McCoy practiced serious non-invasive medical procedures, and did not operate on patients with scalpels and other surgical tools he kept on display in his sick-bay office. Today's non-invasive surgery techniques, using ultrasound and laser technology, are routine.

The technical manuals and literary works seen on rudimentary computer monitors foreshadowed today's e-books.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/t...toys/85658282/

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My brother is a big Trek fan. He owns a poster that plugs in and lights up. Enough said.

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Mr. Spock, Leonard Nimoy



Son Adam Nimoy, director of the documentary For the Love of Spock (Sept. 9, in theaters and VOD) says his father saw a connection between Spock, who stood out due to his pointed ears, eyebrows and emotionless logic, and his own experience growing up in Boston as the son of Russian-Jewish immigrant parents.


“One of the things my dad pointed out to me very early on was that Spock was the only alien on the bridge of the Enterprise. He is the outsider of that crew,” Adam says. “His objective as Spock was to find ways to integrate himself with the crew, to participate in the human community that surrounded him. That’s exactly what my father went through as (the son of) immigrants.”

“He really prided himself in being in that first pilot of Star Trek. (Spock) was the only character in the original pilot in 1964 who continued into the series,” Adam says

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/t...imoy/85637128/

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William Shatner, Captain James T. Kirk



“Space. The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise …”

Shatner, 85, says he was offered the role of Kirk by Gene Roddenberry after an initial pilot didn't sell and the show was recast. "I saw the pilot and I thought it was terrific," he says, crediting Roddenberry with "great ideas."

“It purported to be taking place ahead of its time, but at its best it dealt with issues of the time,” he says.
He ticks off Star Trek’s influence on our culture: Encouragement of space exploration. The idea of people, nations and planets working together. The communicator, replicated years later as the flip phone.


“Those are the practical things,” he says before shifting into full Shatner, awe delivered in a wondrous whisper.
“What’s out there? What is it? Are they coming this way? Are we going that way?” he asks, pausing to consider. “Ninety percent of the universe is unknown. Unknown! And then, (science fiction) suggests what might be. Why isn’t that a reasonable explanation, since you don’t know what it is, anyway? Accept it on faith. The magic of the universe was brought to a lot of people’s eyes and ears by Star Trek.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/t...trek/85635438/

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[Darth Penguin]

Dif-tor heh smusma

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qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep

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